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Chapter II

The King Dreams of World Empires

Verse1 And in the second year of the reign of
Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was
troubled, and his sleep brake from him.

Daniel was carried into captivity in the first year of
Nebuchadnezzar. For three years he was placed under instructors, during
which time he would not of course be reckoned among the wise men of the
kingdom, nor take part in public affairs. Yet in the second year of
Nebuchadnezzar, the transactions recorded in this chapter took place. How,
then, could Daniel be brought in to interpret the king's dream in his
second year? The explanation lies in the fact that Nebuchadnezzar reigned
for two years conjointly with his father, Nabopolassar. From this point
the Jews reckoned, while the Chaldeans reckoned from the time he began to
reign alone on the death of his father. Hence, the year here mentioned was
the second year of his reign according to the Chaldean reckoning, but the
fourth according to the Jewish. [1]
It thus appears that the next year after Daniel had completed his
preparation to participate in the affairs of the Chaldean empire, the
providence of God brought him into sudden and remarkable prominence
throughout the kingdom.

Verse2 Then the king commanded to call the
magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for
to show the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.

The King's Wise Men Fail Him.--The magicians practiced magic,
using the term in its bad sense; that is, they employed all the
superstitious rites and ceremonies of fortunetellers, and

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casters of nativities, and the like. Astrologers were men who
pretended to foretell events by the study of the stars. The science, or
the superstition, of astrology was extensively cultivated by the Eastern
nations of antiquity. Sorcerers were such as pretended to hold
communication with the dead. In this sense, we believe, the word "sorcerer"
is always used in the Scriptures. The Chaldeans here mentioned were a sect
of philosophers similar to the magicians and astrologers, who made natural
science and divinations their study. All these sects or professions
abounded in Babylon. The result desired by each was the same--the
explaining of mysteries and foretelling of events--the principal difference
between them being the means by which they sought to accomplish their
object. The king's difficulty lay equally within the province of each to
explain; hence he summoned them all. With the king it was an important
matter. He was greatly troubled, and therefore concentrated upon the
solution of his perplexity the wisdom of his realm.

Verse3 And the king said unto them, I have
dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream. 4
Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriac, O king, live forever: tell
thy servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.

In whatever else the ancient magicians and astrologers may have been
efficient, they seem to have been thoroughly schooled in the art of drawing
out sufficient information to form a basis for some shrewd calculation, or
of framing their answers in such an ambiguous manner that they would be
applicable whichever way the events turned. In the present case, true to
their cunning instincts, they called upon the king to make known to them
his dream. If they could get full information respecting this, they could
easily agree on some interpretation which would not endanger their
reputation. They addressed themselves to the king in Syriac, a dialect of
the Chaldean language which was used by the educated and cultured classes.
From this point to the end of Daniel 7, the record continues in Chaldaic,
the language spoken by the king.

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Verse5 The king answered and said to the
Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the
dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your
houses shall be made a dunghill. 6 But if ye show the dream, and
the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and
great honor: therefore show me the dream, and the interpretation thereof.
7 They answered again and said, Let the king tell his servants the
dream, and we will show the interpretation of it. 8 The king
answered and said, I know of certainty that ye would gain the time, because
ye see the thing is gone from me. 9 But if ye will not make known
unto me the dream, there is but one decree for you: for ye have prepared
lying and corrupt words to speak before me, till the time be changed:
therefore tell me the dream, and I shall know that ye can show me the
interpretation thereof. 10 The Chaldeans answered before the king,
and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can show the king's
matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things
at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean. 11 And it is a rare
thing that the king requireth, and there is none other that can show it
before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh.
12 For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and
commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon. 13 And the
decree went forth that the wise men should be slain; and they sought Daniel
and his fellows to be slain.

These verses contain the record of the desperate struggle between the
wise men and the king. The former sought some avenue of escape, since they
were caught on their own ground. The king was determined that they should
make known his dream, which was no more than should be expected from their
profession.

Some have severely censured Nebuchadnezzar in this matter, as acting
the part of a heartless, unreasonable tyrant. But what did these magicians
profess to be able to do?--To reveal hidden things, to foretell events, to
make known mysteries entirely beyond human foresight and penetration, and
to do this by the aid of supernatural agencies. There was therefore
nothing unjust in Nebuchadnezzar's demand that they should make known his
dream. When they declared that none but the gods whose dwelling was not
with flesh could make known the king's matter, it was a tacit
acknowledgment that they had no communication with these gods, and knew
nothing beyond what human wisdom and discernment could reveal. "For
this cause the king was angry and very furious."

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He saw that he and all his people were being made the victims of
deception. While we cannot justify the extreme measures to which he
resorted, dooming them to death, and their houses to destruction, we cannot
but feel a hearty sympathy with him in his condemnation of a class of
miserable imposters. The king would be no party to dishonesty or
deception.

Verse14 Then Daniel answered with counsel and
wisdom to Arioch the captain of the king's guard, which was gone forth to
slay the wise men of Babylon: 15 he answered and said to Arioch the
king's captain, Why is the decree so hasty from the king? Then Arioch made
the thing known to Daniel. 16 Then Daniel went in, and desired of
the king that he would give him time, and that he would show the king the
interpretation.
17 Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to
Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions: 18 that they would
desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and
his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

Daniel to the Rescue.--In this narrative we see the providence
of God working in several remarkable particulars. It was providential that
the dream of the king should leave such a powerful impression upon his mind
as to raise him to the greatest height of anxiety, and yet the thing itself
be held from his recollection. This led to the complete exposure of the
false system of the magicians and other pagan teachers. When put to the
test to make known the dream, they were unable to do what they professed
was entirely within their power.

It was remarkable that Daniel and his companions, so lately pronounced
by the king ten times better than all his magicians and astrologers, should
not have been consulted in this matter. But there was a providence in
this. Just as the dream was held from the king, so he was unaccountably
restrained from appealing to Daniel for a solution of the mystery. Had he
called Daniel at the first to make known the matter, the magicians would
not have been brought to the test. But God would give the heathen systems
of the Chaldeans the first chance. He would let them try and ignominiously
fail, and then confess their utter incompetency, ever under the penalty of
death, that they might be the better pre-

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pared to acknowledge His intervention when He should finally manifest
His power in behalf of His captive servants, and for the honor of His name.

It appears that the first intimation Daniel had of the matter was the
presence of the executioners, come for his arrest. His own life being thus
at stake, he was led to seek the Lord with all his heart until He should
work for the deliverance of His servants. Daniel gained his request of the
king for time to consider the matter--a privilege which probably none of
the magicians could have obtained, as the king had already accused them of
preparing false and corrupt words, and of seeking to gain time for this
very purpose. Daniel at once went to his three companions, and asked them
to unite with him in desiring mercy of the God of heaven concerning this
secret. He could have prayed alone, and doubtless would have been heard.
But then, as now, in the union of God's people there is prevailing power.
The promise of the accomplishment of that which is asked, is to the two or
three who shall agree concerning it. (Matthew 18: 19, 20.)

Verse19 Then was the secret revealed unto
Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. 20
Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever: for
wisdom and might are His: 21 And He changeth the times and the
seasons: He removeth kings, and setteth up kings: He giveth wisdom unto the
wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding: 22 He
revealeth the deep and secret things: He knoweth what is in the darkness,
and the light dwelleth with Him. 23 I thank Thee, and praise
Thee, O Thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might, and
hast made known unto me now what we desired of Thee: for Thou hast now made
known unto us the king's matter.

Whether or not the answer came while Daniel and his companions were yet
offering up their petitions, we are not informed. It was in a night vision
that God revealed Himself in their behalf. The words "night vision"
mean anything that is seen, whether through dreams or visions.

Daniel immediately offered up praise to God for His gracious dealing
with them, and while his prayer is not preserved, his responsive
thanksgiving is fully recorded. God is

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honored by our praise to Him for the things He has done for us, as well
as by our petitions to Him for help. Let Daniel's course be our example in
this respect. Let no mercy from the hand of God fail of its due return of
thanksgiving and praise. In the days of Christ's ministry on earth, did He
not cleanse ten lepers, and only one returned to give Him thanks? "But
where," asks Christ sorrowfully, "are the nine?" Luke 17:
17.

Daniel had the utmost confidence in what had been shown him. He did
not first go to the king to see if what had been revealed to him was indeed
the king's dream, but he immediately praised God for having answered his
prayer.

Although the matter was revealed to Daniel, he did not take honor to
himself as though it were by his prayers alone that the answer had been
obtained; but he immediately associated his companions with him, and
acknowledged it to be as much an answer to their prayers as it was to his
own. It was, said he, "what
we desired of Thee," and Thou hast made it "known unto
us."

Verse24 Therefore Daniel went in unto Arioch,
whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise men of Babylon: he went and
said thus unto him; Destroy not the wise men of Babylon: bring me in before
the king, and I will show unto the king the interpretation.

Daniel's first plea was for the wise men of Babylon. Destroy them not,
for the king's secret is revealed, he implored. True, it was through no
merit of theirs or their heathen systems of divination that this revelation
was made. They were worthy of as much condemnation as before. But their
own confession of utter impotence in the matter was humiliation enough for
them, and Daniel was anxious that they should so far partake of the
benefits shown him as to have their lives spared. They were saved because
there was a man of God among them. Thus it ever is. For the sake of Paul
and Silas, all the prisoners with them were loosed. (Acts 16: 26.) For
the sake of Paul, the lives of all that sailed with him were saved. (Acts
27: 24.) How often the wicked are benefited by the presence of the
righteous! Well would be if they would

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remember the obligations under which they are thus placed.

What saves the world today? For whose sake is it still spared?--For
the sake of the few righteous persons who are yet left. Remove these, and
how long would the wicked be suffered to run their guilty career?--No
longer than the antediluvians were suffered after Noah had entered the ark,
or the Sodomites after Lot had departed from their polluted and polluting
presence. If only ten righteous persons could have been found in Sodom,
the multitude of its wicked inhabitants would for their sakes have been
spared. Yet the wicked will despise, ridicule, and oppress the very ones
on whose account it is that they are still permitted the enjoyment of life
and all its blessings.

Verse25 Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the
king in haste, and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives
of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation.

It is ever a characteristic of ministers and courtiers to ingratiate
themselves with their sovereign. So here Arioch represented that he had
found a man who could make known the desired interpretation, as if with
great disinterestedness in behalf of the king he had been searching for
someone to solve his difficulty, and had at last found him. In order to
see through this deception of his chief executioner, the king had but to
remember, as he probably did, his interview with Daniel, and Daniel's
promise, if time could be granted, to show the interpretation of the dream.
(Verse 16.)

Verse26 The king answered and said to Daniel,
whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream
which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof? 27 Daniel
answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king
hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the
soothsayers, show unto the king; 28 But there is a God in heaven
that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what
shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon
thy bed, are these.

"Art thou able to make known unto me the dream?" was the
king's salutation to Daniel as he came into the royal presence.
Notwithstanding his previous acquaintance with

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this Hebrew, the king seemed to question the ability of one so young
and inexperienced, to make known a matter in which aged and venerable
magicians and soothsayers had utterly failed. Daniel declared plainly that
the wise men, the astrologers, the soothsayers, and the magicians could not
make known this secret. It was beyond their power. Therefore the king
should not be angry with them, nor put confidence in their vain
superstitions. The prophet proceeded to make known the true God, who rules
in heaven, and is the only revealer of secrets. He it is, said Daniel, who
"maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter
days."

Verse29 As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came
into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and He that
revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. 30
But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I
have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the
interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy
heart.

Here is brought out another of the commendable traits of
Nebuchadnezzar's character. Unlike some rulers, who fill up the present
with folly and debauchery without regard to the future, the king thought
forward upon the days to come, with an anxious desire to know with what
events they should be filled. It was partly for this reason that God gave
him this dream, which we must regard as a token of divine favor to the
king. Yet God would not work for the king independently of His own people.
Though He gave the dream to the king, He sent the interpretation through
one of His acknowledged servants.

Daniel first disclaimed all credit for the interpretation, and then he
sought to modify the king's natural feelings of pride in being thus noticed
by the God of heaven. He informed him that although the dream had been
given to him, it was not for his sake alone that the interpretation was
sent, but also for their sakes through whom it should be given. Ah! God
had some servants there, and it was for them that He was working. They
were of more value in His sight than the mightiest kings and potentates of
earth.

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How comprehensive was the work of God in this instance! By this one
act of revealing the king's dream to Daniel, He made known to the king the
things he desired, He saved His servants who trusted in Him, He brought
conspicuously before the Chaldean nation the knowledge of Him who know the
end from the beginning, He poured contempt on the false systems of the
soothsayers and magicians, and He honored His own name and exalted His
servants in their eyes.

Daniel Relates the Dream.--After making it clear to the king
that the purpose of the "God in heaven" in giving him the dream,
was to reveal "what shall be in the latter days," Daniel related
the dream itself.

Verse31 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a
great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before
thee; and the form thereof was terrible. 32 This image's head was
of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs
of brass,
33 his legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
34 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which
smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to
pieces.
35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the
gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer
threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found
for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and
filled the whole earth.

Nebuchadnezzar, a worshiper of the gods of the Chaldean religion, was
an idolater. An image was an object which would at once command his
attention and respect. Moreover, earthly kingdoms, which, as we shall
hereafter see, were represented by this image, were objects of esteem and
value in his eyes.

But how admirably adapted was this representation to convey a great and
needful truth to the mind of Nebuchadnezzar. Besides delineating the
progress of events through the whole course of time for the benefit of His
people, God would show Nebuchadnezzar the utter emptiness and worthlessness
of earthly pomp and glory. how could this be more impressively done than
by an image whose head was of gold? Below this head was body composed of
inferior metals descending

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in value until they reached their basest form in the feet and toes of
iron mingled with miry clay. The whole was then dashed to pieces, and made
like the empty chaff. It was finally blown away where no place could be
found for it, after which something durable and of heavenly worth occupied
its place. So would God show to the children of men that earthly kingdoms
are to pass away, and earthly greatness and glory, like a gaudy bubble,
will break and vanish. In the place so long usurped by these, the kingdom
of God shall be set up and have no end, while all who have an interest in
that kingdom shall rest under the shadow of its peaceful wings forever and
ever. But this is anticipating.

Verse36 This is the dream; and we will tell the
interpretation thereof before the king. 37 Thou, O king, art a
king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and
strength, and glory. 38 And wheresoever the children of men
dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given
into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head
of gold.

Daniel Interprets the Dream.--Now opens one of the most
comprehensive of the histories of world empire. Eight short verses of the
inspired record tell the whole story, yet that story embraces the history
of this world's pomp and power. A few moments will suffice to commit it to
memory, yet the period which it covers, beginning more than twenty-five
centuries ago, reaches from that far-distant point past the rise and fall
of kingdoms, past the setting up and overthrow of empires, past cycles and
ages, past our own day, to the eternal state. It is so comprehensive that
it embraces all this, yet it is so minute that it gives us the great
outlines of earthly kingdoms from that time to this. Human wisdom never
devised so brief a record that embraced so much. Human language never set
forth in so few words such a great volume of historical truth. The finger
of God is here. Let us heed the lesson well. With what interest and
astonishment must the king have listened as he was informed by the prophet
that his kingdom was the golden head of the magnificent image. Daniel in-

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formed the king that the God of heavens had given him his kingdom, and
made him ruler over all. This would restrain him from the pride of
thinking that he had attained his position by his own power and wisdom, and
would enlist the gratitude of his heart toward the true God.

The kingdom of Babylon, which finally developed into the nation
represented by the golden head of the great historic image, was founded by
Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah, more than two thousand years before
Christ. "Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as
Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom
was Babel ["Babylon," margin], and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh,
in the land of Shinar." Genesis 10: 8-10. It appears that Nimrod also
founded the city of Nineveh, which afterward became the capital of Assyria.
(See marginal reading of Genesis 10: 11.)

Fulfillment of the Dream.--The Babylonian Empire rose to power
under the general who also became king, Nabopolassar. When he died in 604
B.C. his son Nebuchadnezzar became king. As R. Campbell Thompson
declares: "Events had already shown that Nebuchadrezzar was a vigorous
and brilliant commander, and physically as well as mentally a strong man,
fully worthy of succeeding his father. He was to become the greatest man
of his time in the Near East, as a soldier, a statesman, and an architect.
Had his successors been of such a stamp instead of callow boys or dilettanti
without redeeming vigor, the Persians would have found Babylonia a
harder problem. 'All the nations,' says Jeremiah (Jeremiah 27: 7, R. V.),
'shall serve him, and his son, and his son's son, until the time of his own
land come.' " [2]

Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar in the first year of his reign,
and the third year of Judah (Daniel 1: 1). 606 B.C.
Nebuchadnezzar reigned two years

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conjointly with his father, Nabopolassar. From this point the Jews
computed his reign, but the Chaldeans from the date of his sole reign, 604
B.C., as stated above. Respecting the successors of
Nebuchadnezzar, the authority just quoted adds:

"Nebuchadnezzar died about August-September, 562 B.C.,
and was succeeded by his son Amel-Marduk (562-560 B.C.), whom
Jeremiah calls Evil-Merodach. He was given little time to prove his worth;
the two years of his brief reign are merely enough to show that political
conditions were again hostile to the royal house."[3]

The later Babylonian rulers, weak in power, could not equal the reign
of Nebuchadnezzar. Cyrus, king of Persia, besieged Babylon, and took it by
stratagem.

The character of the Babylonian Empire is indicated by the head of
gold. It was the golden kingdom of a golden age. Babylon, its metropolis,
towered to a height never reached by any of its successors. Situated in
the garden of the East; laid out in a perfect square said to be sixty miles
in circumference, fifteen miles on each side; surrounded by a wall
estimated to have been two hundred to three hundred feet high and
eighty-seven feet thick, with a moat, or ditch, around this, or equal cubic
capacity with the wall itself; divided into squares by its many streets,
each one hundred and fifty feet in width, crossing at right angles, every
one of them straight and level; its two hundred and twenty-five square
miles of enclosed surface laid out in in luxuriant pleasure grounds and
gardens, interspersed with magnificent dwellings--this city, with its sixty
miles of moat, its sixty miles of outer wall, its thirty miles of river
wall through its center, its gates of solid brass, its hanging gardens
rising terrace above terrace till they equaled in height the walls
themselves, its temple of Belus three miles in circumference, its two royal
palaces, one three and a half and the other eight miles in circumference,
with its subterranean tunnel under the River Euphrates connecting these two

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palaces, its perfect arrangements for convenience, ornament, and
defense, and its unlimited resources--this city, containing it itself many
things which were themselves wonders of the world, was itself another and
still mightier wonder. There, with the whole earth prostate at her feet, a
queen in peerless grandeur, drawing from the pen of inspiration itself this
glowing title, "The glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees'
excellency," stood this city, fit capital of that kingdom which was
represented by the golden head of this great historic image.

Such was Babylon, with Nebuchadnezzar in the prime of live, bold,
vigorous, and accomplished, seated upon its throne, when Daniel entered
within its walls to serve as a captive in its gorgeous palaces for seventy
years. There the children of the Lord, oppressed more than cheered by the
glory and prosperity of the land of their captivity, hung their harps on
the willows by the Euphrates, and wept when they remembered Zion.

There began the captive state of the church in a still broader sense;
for ever since that time the people of God have been in subjection to
earthly powers, and more or less oppressed by them. So they will be until
all earthly powers shall finally yield to Him whose right it is to reign.
And lo, that day of deliverance draws on apace!

Into another city, not only Daniel, but all the children of God, from
least to greatest, from lowest to highest, are soon to enter. It is a city
not merely sixty miles in circumference, but fifteen hundred miles; a city
whose walls are not brick and bitumen, but precious stones and jasper;
whose streets are not the stone-paved streets of Babylon, smooth and
beautiful as they were, but transparent gold; whose river is not the
Euphrates, but the river of life; whose music is not the sighs and laments
of broken-hearted captives, but the thrilling paeans of victory over death
and the grave, which ransomed multitudes shall raise; whose light is not
the intermittent light of earth, but the unceasing and ineffable glory of
God and the

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Lamb. To this city they shall come, not as captives entering a foreign
land, but as exiles returning to their father's house; not as to a place
where such chilling words as "bondage," "servitude,"
and "oppression," shall weigh down their spirits, but to one
where the sweet words, "home," "freedom," "peace,"
"purity," "unutterable bliss," and "unending life,"
shall thrill their souls with delight forever and ever. Yea, our mouths
shall be filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing, when the Lord
shall turn again the captivity of Zion. (Psalm 126: 1, 2; Revelation 21:
1-27.)

Verse39 And after thee shall arise another
kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall
bear rule over all the earth.

Nebuchadnezzar reigned forty-three years, and was succeeded by the
following rulers: His son, Evil-Merodach, two years; Neriglissar, his
son-in-law, four years; Laborosoarchod, Neriglissar's son, nine months,
which, being less than on year, is not counted in the canon of Ptolemy; and
lastly, Nabondius, whose son, Belshazzar, grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, was
associated with him on the throne.

"The proof of this association is contained in the cylinders of
Nabonadius [Nabonidus] found at Mugheir, where the protection of the gods
is asked for Nabu-nadid and his son Bel-shar-uzur, who are coupled together
in a way that implies the cosovereignty of the latter. (British Museum
Series, Vol. I. pl. 68, no. 1.) The date of the association was at the
latest 540 B.C., Nabonadiu's fifteenth year, since the third year
of Belshazzar is mentioned in Daniel 8: 1. If Belshazzar was (as I have
supposed) a son of a daughter of Nebuchadnezzar married to Nabonadius after
he became king, he could not be more than fourteen in his father's
fifteenth year." [4]

The Fall of Babylon.--In the first year of Neriglissar, only
two years after death of Nebuchadnezzar, broke out that fatal war between
the Babylonians and the Medes, which re-

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sulted in the overthrow of the Babylonian kingdom. Cyaxares, king of
the Medes, who is called "Darius" in Daniel 5: 31, summoned to
his aid his nephew Cyrus of the Persian line. The war was prosecuted with
uninterrupted success by the Medes and Persians, until in the eighteenth
year of Nabonidus (the third year of his son Belshazzar), Cyrus laid siege
to Babylon, the only city in all the East which then held out against him.
The Babylonians gathered within their seemingly impregnable walls, with
provision on hand for twenty years, and land within the limits of their
broad city sufficient to furnish food for the inhabitants and garrison for
an indefinite period. They scoffed at Cyrus from their lofty walls, and
derided his seemingly useless efforts to bring them into subjection.
According to all human calculation, they had good ground for their feelings
of security. Never, weighed in the balance of earthly probability, could
that city be taken with the means of warfare then known. Hence they
breathed as freely and slept as soundly as though no foe were waiting and
watching around their beleaguered walls. But God had decreed that the
proud and wicked city should come down from her throne of glory. And when
He speaks, what mortal arm can defeat His word?

In their feeling of security lay the source of their danger. Cyrus
resolved to accomplish by stratagem what he could not effect by force.
Learning of the approach of an annual festival in which the whole city
would be given up to mirth and revelry, he fixed upon that day as the time
to carry his purpose into execution.

There was no entrance for him into that city unless he could find it
where the River Euphrates entered and emerged, as it passed under the
walls. He resolved to make the channel of the river his highway into the
stronghold of his enemy. To do this, the water must be turned aside from
its channel through the city. For this purpose, on the evening of the
feast day above referred to, he detailed on body of soldiers to turn the
river at a given hour into a large artificial lake a short

Page 47

distance above the city; another to take their station at the point
where the river entered the city; and a third to take a position fifteen
miles below, where the river emerged from the city. The two latter bodies
were instructed to enter the channel as soon as they found the river
fordable, and in the darkness of the night explore their way beneath the
walls, and press on to the palace of the king where they were to surprise
and kill the guards, and capture or slay the king. When the water was
turned into the lake, the river soon became shallow enough to ford, and the
soldiers followed its channel into the heart of the city of Babylon.
[5]

But all this would have been in vain, had not the whole city given
itself over on that eventful night to the most abandoned carelessness and
presumption, a state of things upon which Cyrus calculated largely for the
carrying out of his purpose. On each side of the river through the entire
length of the city were walls of great height, and of equal thickness with
the outer walls. In these walls were huge gates of brass, which, when
closed and guarded, debarred all entrance from the river bed to any of the
streets that crossed the river. Had the gates been closed at this time, the
soldiers of Cyrus might have marched into the city along the river bed, and
then marched out again, for all that they would have been able to
accomplish toward the subjugation of the place.

But in the drunken revelry of that fatal night, these river gates were
left open, as had been foretold by the prophet Isaiah years before in these
words: "Thus saith the Lord to His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right
hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the
loins of kings, to open before him the two-leaved gates; and the gates
shall not be shut." Isaiah 45: 1. The entrance of the Persian
soldiers was not perceived. Many a cheek would have paled with terror, had
the sudden going down of the river been noticed, and its

Page 48

fearful import understood. Many a tongue would have spread wild alarm
through the city, had the dark forms of armed foes been seen stealthily
treading their way to the citadel of their supposed security. But no one
noticed the sudden subsidence of the waters of the river; no one saw the
entrance of the Persian warriors; no one cared for aught but to see how
deeply and recklessly he could plunge into the wild debauch. That night's
dissipation cost the Babylonians their kingdom and their freedom. They
went into their brutish revelry subjects of the king of Babylon; they awoke
from it slaves to the king of Persia.

The soldiers of Cyrus first made known their presence in the city by
falling upon the royal guards in the vestibule of the palace of the king.
Belshazzar soon became aware of the cause of the disturbance, and died
fighting for his life. This feast of Belshazzar is described in the fifth
chapter of Daniel, and the scene closes with the simple record, "In
that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the
Median took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old."

The historian Prideaux says: "Darius the Mede, that is Cyaxares,
the uncle of Cyrus, took the kingdom; for Cyrus allowed him the title of
all his conquests as long as he lived." [6]

Thus the first empire, symbolized by the head of gold of the great
image, came to an ignoble end. It would naturally be supposed that the
conqueror, becoming possessed of so noble a city as Babylon, far surpassing
anything else in the world, would have taken it as the seat of his empire,
and maintained it in its splendor. But God had said that that city should
become a heap, and the habitation of the beasts of the desert; that its
houses should be full of doleful creatures; that the wild beasts of the
islands should cry in its desolate dwellings, and dragons in its pleasant
palaces. (Isaiah 13: 19-22.) It must

Page 49

first be deserted. Cyrus established a second capital at Susa, a
celebrated city in the province of Elam, east from Babylon, on the banks of
the River Choaspes, a branch of the Tigris. This was probably done in the
first year of his sole reign.

The pride of the Babylonians being particularly provoked by this act,
in the fifth year of Darius Hystaspes, 517 B.C., they rose in
rebellion and brought upon themselves again the whole strength of the
Persian Empire. The city was once more taken by stratagem. Darius took
away the brazen gates of the city, and beat down the walls from two hundred
cubits to fifty cubits. This was the beginning of its destruction. By
this act, it was left exposed to the ravages of every hostile band.
Xerxes, on his return from Greece, plundered the temple of Belus of its
immense wealth, and then laid the lofty structure in ruins. Alexander the
Great endeavored to rebuild it, but after employing ten thousand men two
months to clear away the rubbish, he died from excessive drunkenness and
debauchery, and the work was suspended. In the year 294 B.C.,
Seleucus Nicator built the city of New Babylon in the neighborhood of the
old city, and took much of the material and many of the inhabitants of the
old city, to build up and people the new. Now almost exhausted of
inhabitants, neglect and decay were telling fearfully upon the ancient
capital. The violence of Parthian princes hastened its ruin. About the
end of the fourth century, it was used by the Persian kings as an enclosure
for wild beasts. At the end of the twelfth century, according to a
celebrated traveler, the few remaining ruins of Nebuchadnezzar's palace
were so full of serpents and venomous reptiles that they could not be
closely inspected without great danger. And today scarcely enough even of
the ruins is left to mark the spot where once stood the largest, richest,
and proudest city of the ancient world.

Thus the ruin of great Babylon shows us how accurately God fulfills His
word, and makes the doubts of skepticism appear like willful blindness.

"After thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee."

Page 51

The use of the word "kingdom" here, shows that kingdoms, and
not particular kings, are represented by the different parts of this image.
Hence when it was said to Nebuchadnezzar, "Thou art this head of
gold," although the personal pronoun was used, the kingdom not the
king himself was meant.

Medo-Persian Kingdom.--The succeeding kingdom, Medo-Persia,
answered to the breast and arms of silver of the great image. It was to be
inferior to the preceding kingdom. In what respect inferior? Not in
power, for it conquered Babylon. Not in extent, for Cyrus subdued all the
East from the AEgean Sea to the River Indus, and thus erected a more
extensive empire. But it was inferior in wealth, luxury, and magnificence.

Viewed from a Scriptural standpoint, the principal event under the
Babylonian Empire was the captivity of the children of Israel; under the
Medo-Persian kingdom it was the restoration of Israel to their own land.
At the taking of Babylon Cyrus, as an act of courtesy assigned the first
place in the kingdom to his uncle, Darius, in 538 B.C. But two
years afterward Darius died, leaving Cyrus sole monarch of the empire. In
this year, which closed Israel's seventy years of captivity, Cyrus issued
his famous decree for the return of the Jews and the rebuilding of their
temple. This was the first installment of the great decree for the
restoration and building again of Jerusalem (Ezra 6: 14), which was
completed in the seventh year of the reign of Artaxerxes, 457 B.C.,
a date of much importance, as will hereafter be shown.

After a reign of seven years, Cyrus left the kingdom to his son
Cambyses, who reigned seven years and five months, to 522 B.C.
Eight monarchs reigned between this time and the year 336 B.C.
The year 335 B.C. is set down as the first of Darius Codomannus,
the last of the line of the old Persian kings. This man, according to
Prideaux, was of noble stature, of goodly person, of the greatest personal
valor, and of a mild and generous disposition. It was his ill fortune to
have to con-

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tend with one who was an agent in the fulfillment of prophecy, and no
qualifications, natural or acquired, could make him successful in the
unequal contest. Scarcely was he warm upon the throne, ere he found his
formidable enemy, Alexander, at the head of the Greek soldiers, preparing
to dismount him from it.

The cause and the particulars of the contest between the Greeks and the
Persians we leave to histories especially devoted to such matters.
Suffice it to say that the deciding point was reached on the field of
Arbela in 331 B.C., where the Grecians, though only one to twenty
in number as compared with the Persians, won a decisive victory. Alexander
became absolute lord of the Persian Empire to an extent never attained by
any of its own kings.

Grecian Empire.--"Another third kingdom of brass . . .
shall bear rule over all the earth," the prophet had said. Few and
brief are the inspired words which involved in their fulfillment a
succession in world rulership. In the ever-changing political kaleidoscope,
Grecia came into the field of vision, to be for a time the all-absorbing
object of attention, as the third of what are called the universal empires
of the earth.

After the battle which decided the fate of the empire, Darius
endeavored to rally the shattered remnants of his army, and make a stand
for his kingdom and his rights. But he could not gather out of all the
host of his recently so numerous and well-appointed army a force with which
he deemed it prudent to hazard another engagement with the victorious
Grecians. Alexander pursued him on the wings of the wind. Time after time
Darius barely eluded the grasp of his swiftly following foe. At length
three traitors, Bessus, Nabarzanes, and Barsaentes, seized the unfortunate
prince, shut him up in a close cart, and fled with him as their prisoner
toward Bactria. It was their purpose, if Alexander pursued them, to
purchase their own safety by delivering up their king. Hereupon Alexander,
learning of the dangerous position of Darius in the hands of the traitors,
immediately put himself with the lightest part of

Page 53

his army upon a forced pursuit. After several days hard march, he came
up with the traitors. They urged Darius to mount on horseback for a more
speedy flight. Upon his refusing to do this, they gave him several mortal
wounds, and left him dying in the cart, while they mounted their steeds and
rode away.

When Alexander arrived, he beheld only the lifeless form of the Persian
king, who but a few months before was seated upon the throne of the
universal empire. Disaster, overthrow, and desertion had come suddenly
upon Darius. His kingdom had been conquered, his treasure seized, and his
family reduced to captivity. Now, brutally slain by the hand of traitors,
he lay a bloody corpse in a rude cart. The sight of the melancholy
spectacle drew tears from the eyes of even Alexander, familiar though he
was with all the horrible vicissitudes and bloody scenes of was. Throwing
his cloak over the body, he commanded that it be conveyed to the ladies of
the Persian royal family who were captives at Susa, and furnished from his
own treasury the necessary means for a royal funeral.

When Darius died, Alexander saw the field cleared of his last
formidable foe. Thenceforward he could spend his time in his own manner,
now in the enjoyment of rest and pleasure, and again in the prosecution of
some minor conquest. He entered upon a pompous campaign into India,
because, according to Grecian fable, Bacchus and Hercules, two sons of
Jupiter, whose son he also claimed to be, had done the same. With
contemptible arrogance, he claimed for himself divine honors. He gave up
conquered cities, freely and unprovoked, to the mercy of his bloodthirsty
and licentious soldiery. He often murdered his friends and favorites in
his drunken frenzies. He encouraged such excessive drinking among his
followers that on one occasion twenty of them died as the result of their
carousal. At length, having sat through one long drinking spree, he was
immediately invited to another, when, after drinking to each of the twenty
guests present, he twice drank, says history, incredible as it may seem,
the full

Page 54

Herculean cup containing six of our quarts. He was seized with a
violent fever, of which he died eleven days later, Jun 13, 323 B.C.,
while yet he stood only at the threshold of mature life, in the
thirty-second year of his age.

Verse40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong
as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and
as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

Iron Monarchy of Rome.--Thus far in the application of this
prophecy there is a general agreement among expositors. That Babylon,
Medo-Persia, and Greece are represented respectively by the head of gold,
the breast and arms of silver, and the sides of brass, is acknowledged by
all. But with as little ground for a diversity of views, there is
strangely a difference of opinion as to what kingdom is symbolized by the
fourth division of the great image--the legs of iron. What kingdom
succeeded Greece in the empire of the world, for the legs of iron denote
the fourth kingdom in the series? The testimony of history is full and
explicit on this point. One kingdom did this, and one only, and that was
Rome. It conquered Grecia; it subdued all things; like iron, it broke in
pieces and bruised.

Says Bishop Newton: "The four different metals must signify four
different nations: and as the gold signified the Babylonians, and the
silver the Persians, and the brass the Macedonians; so the iron cannot
signify the Macedonians again, but must necessarily denote some other
nation: and we will venture to say that there is not a nation upon earth,
to which this description is applicable, but the Romans."
[7]

Gibbon, following the symbolic imagery of Daniel, thus describes this
empire:

"The arms of the Republic, sometimes vanquished in battle, always
victorious in war, advanced with rapid steps to the Euphrates, the Danube,
the Rhine, and the ocean; and the images of gold, or silver, or brass, that
might serve to represent

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the nations and their kings, were successively broken by the iron
monarchy of Rome." [8]

At the opening of the Christian Era, this empire took in the whole
south of Europe, France, England, the greater part of the Netherlands,
Switzerland, and the south of Germany, Hungary, Turkey, and Greece, not to
speak of its possessions in Asia and Africa. Well therefore may Gibbon say
of it:

"The empire of the Romans filled the world, and when that empire
fell into the hands of a single person, the world became a safe and dreary
prison for his enemies . . . To resist was fatal, and it was impossible to
fly." [9]

It will be noticed that at first the kingdom is described unqualifiedly
as strong as iron. This was the period of its strength, during which it
has been likened to a mighty colossus bestriding the nations, conquering
everything, and giving laws to the world. But this was not to continue.

Verse41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and
toes, part of potters' clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be
divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as
thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. 42 And as the toes of
the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be
partly strong, and partly broken.

Rome Divided.--The element of weakness symbolized by the clay,
pertained to the feet as well as to the toes. Rome, before its division
into ten kingdoms, lost that iron vigor which it possessed to a superlative
degree during the first centuries of its career. Luxury, with its
accompanying effeminacy and degeneracy, the destroyer of nations as well as
of individuals, began to corrode and weaken its iron sinews, and thus
prepared the way for its disintegration into ten kingdoms.

The iron legs of the image terminate in feet and toes. To the toes, of
which there were of course ten, our attention is called by the explicit
mention of them in the prophecy. The

Page 57

kingdom represented by that part of the image to which the toes
belonged, was finally divided into ten parts. The question naturally
arises, Do the ten toes of the image represent the ten final divisions of
the Roman Empire? We answer, Yes.

The image of Daniel 2 is exactly parallel with the four beasts in the
vision of Daniel 7. The fourth beast represents the same kingdom as do the
iron legs of the image. The ten horns of the beast correspond naturally to
the ten toes of the image. These horns are plainly declared to be ten
kings which should arise. They are as much independent kingdoms as are the
beasts themselves, for the beasts are spoken of in precisely the same
manner--as "four kings, which shall arise." Daniel 7: 17. They
do not denote a line of successive kings, but kings or kingdoms which
existed contemporaneously, for three of them were plucked up by the little
horn. The ten horns, beyond controversy, represent the ten kingdoms into
which Rome was divided.

We have seen that in Daniel's interpretation of the image he uses the
words "king" and kingdom" interchangeably, the former
denoting the same as the latter. In verse 44 he says that "in the
days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom." This
shows that at the time the kingdom of God is set up, there will exist a
plurality of kings. It cannot refer to the four preceding kingdoms; for it
would be absurd to use such language in reference to a line of successive
kings, since it would be in the days of the last king only, not in the days
of any of the preceding, that the kingdom of God would be set up.

The Ten Kingdoms.--Here, then, is a division presented; and
what have we in the symbol to indicate it?--Nothing but the toes of the
image. Unless they do, we are left utterly in the dark on the nature and
extent of the division which the prophecy shows did exist. To suppose this
would be to cast a serious imputation upon the prophecy itself. We are
therefore held to the conclusion that the ten toes of the image denote the
ten parts into which the Roman Empire was divided.

Page 58

This division was accomplished between A.D. 351 and 476. The
era of this dissolution thus covered a hundred and twenty-five years, from
about the middle of the fourth century to the last quarter of the fifth.
No historians of whom we are aware, place the beginning of this work of the
dismemberment of the Roman Empire earlier than A.D. 351, and
there is general agreement in assigning its close in A.D. 476.
Concerning the intermediate dates, that is, the precise time from which
each of the ten kingdoms that arose on the ruins of the Roman Empire is to
be dated, there is some difference of views among historians. Nor does
this seem strange, when we consider that there was an ear of great
confusion, that the map of the Roman Empire during that time underwent many
sudden and violent changes, and that paths of hostile nations charging upon
its territory crossed and recrossed each other in a labyrinth of confusion.
But all historians agree in this, that out of the territory of Western
Rome, ten separate kingdoms were ultimately established, and we may safely
assign them to the time between the dates above named; namely A.D.
351 and 476.

The ten nations which were most instrumental in breaking up the Roman
Empire, and which at some time in their history held respectively portions
of Roman territory as separate and independent kingdoms, may be enumerated
(without respect to the time of their establishment) as follows: Huns,
Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, Vandals, Suevi, Burgundians, Heruli,
Anglo-Saxons, and Lombards. [*] The
connection between these and some of the modern nations of Europe, is still
traceable in the names, as England, Burgundy, Lombardy, France, etc.

But it may be asked, Why not suppose the two legs denote division as
well as the toes? Would it not be as inconsistent to say that the toes
denote division and the legs do not, as to say that the legs denote
division and the toes do not? We answer that the prophecy itself must
govern our conclu-

Page 59

sions in this matter; for though it says nothing of division in
connection with the legs, it does introduce the subject of division as we
come to the feet and toes. The record says, "Whereas thou sawest the
feet and toes, part of potters' clay and part of iron, the kingdom shall be
divided." No division could take place, or at least none is said to
have taken place, until the weakening element of the clay is introduced;
and we do not find this until we come to the feet and toes. But we are not
to understand that the clay denotes one division and the iron the other;
for after the long-existing unity of the kingdom was broken, no one of the
fragments was broken, no one of the fragments was a strong as the original
iron, but all were in a state of weakness denoted by the mixture of iron
and clay.

The conclusion is inevitable, therefore, that the prophet has here
stated the cause for the effect. The introduction of the weakness of the
clay element, as we come to the feet, resulted in the division of the
kingdom into ten parts, as represented by the ten toes; and this result, or
division, is more than intimated in the sudden mention of a plurality of
contemporaneous kings. Therefore, while we find no evidence that the legs
denote division, but serious objections against such a view, we do find
good reason for supposing that the toes denote division, as here claimed.

Furthermore, each of the four monarchies had its own particular
territory, which was the kingdom proper, and where we are to look for the
chief events in its history shadowed forth by the symbol. We are not,
therefore, to look for the divisions of the Roman Empire in the territory
formerly occupied by Babylon, or Persia, or Grecia, but in the territory
proper of the Roman kingdom, which was finally known as the Western Empire.
Rome conquered the world, but the kingdom of Rome proper lay west of
Grecia. That is what was represented by the legs of iron. There, then, we
look for the ten kingdoms, and there we find them. We are not obliged to
mutilate or deform the symbol to make it a fit and accurate representation
of historical events.

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Verse43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with
miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they
shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.

Rome the Last Universal Empire.--With Rome fell the last of the
world's universal empires. Heretofore it was possible for one nation,
rising superior to its neighbors in prowess, bravery, and the science of
war, to consolidate them into one vast empire. But when Rome fell, such
possibilities forever passed away. The iron was mixed with clay, and lost
the power of cohesion. No man or combination of men can again consolidate
the fragments. This point is so well set forth by another that we quote
his words:

"From this, its divided state, the first strength of the empire
departed--but not as that of the others had done. No other kingdom was to
succeed it, as it had the three which went before it. It was to continue,
in this tenfold division, until the kingdom of the stone smote it, upon its
feet; broke them in pieces, and scattered them as the wind does 'the chaff
of the summer threshing-floor!' Yet, through all this time, a portion of
tis strength was to remain. And so the prophet say, 'And as the toes of
the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be
partly strong, and partly broken. Verse 42. . . . Time and again men have
dreamed of rearing on these dominions one mighty kingdom.
Charlemagne tried it. Charles V tried it. Louis XIV tried it. Napoleon
tried it. But neither succeeded. A single verse of prophecy was stronger
than all their host. . . 'Partly strong, and partly
broken,' was the prophetic description. And such, too, has been the
historic fact concerning them. . . . Ten kingdoms were formed out of it;
and 'broken,' as then it was, it still continues--i.e., 'partly
broken.' . . . It is 'partly strong'--i.e., it retains, even in its broken
state, enough of its iron strength to resist all attempts to mold its part
together. 'This shall not be,' says the word of God. 'This
has not been,' replies the book of history.

"But then, men may say, 'Another plan remains. If force cannot
avail, diplomacy and reasons of state may--we will

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try them. And so the prophecy foreshadows this when it says, 'They
shall mingle themselves with the seed of men'--i.e., marriages shall be
formed, in hope thus to consolidate their power, and, in the end, to unite
these divided kingdoms into one.

"And shall this device succeed?--No. The prophet answers: 'They
shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.' And
the history of Europe, is but a running commentary on the exact fulfillment
of these words. From the time of Canute until the present age, it has been
the policy of the reigning monarchs, the beaten path which they have
trodden, in order to reach a mightier scepter and a wider sway. . . .
Napoleon . . . sought to reach by alliance, what he could not gain by
force, i.e., to build up one mighty, consolidated empire. And did
he succeed?--Nay. The very power with which he was allied, proved his
destruction, in the troops of Blucher,on the field of Waterloo! The iron
would not mingle with clay."[10]

But Napoleon was not the last to try the experiment. Numerous European
wars followed the efforts of the Little Corporal. To avert future
conflicts, benevolent rulers resorted to the expedient of intermarriage to
ensure peace, until by the opening of the twentieth century it was asserted
that every ranking hereditary ruler of Europe was related to the British
royal family. World War I showed the futility of these attempts.

Out of the horrors of that titanic struggle was born an ideal expressed
by President Woodrow Wilson, who exclaimed, "The world has been made
safe for democracy!" With the conviction that a war had been fought
which would end war came the announced inherent rights of minorities, and
the principles of self-determination, ensured by a world league of nations
which would restrain dictators and punish aggressors.

Yet under the very shadow of the League of Nations' palace arose
leaders who would destroy world peace and shatter

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the ideal of world union, while preaching a new social revolution.
They vainly promised the triumph of culture and a union born of racial
superiority ensuring the "partly strong" and "partly broken"
nations of Europe "a thousand years of tranquility."

Out of the welter of confusion, the wreck of nations, the destruction
of institutions, the sacrifice of treasure resultant from centuries of
frugality, through eyes grief-dimmed by the loss of the flower of its young
manhood, the ravishment of its womanhood, the slaughter of infancy and age,
through clouds of smoking human blood a distraught world looks anxiously
for its signs of surcease. Will the elusive mirage of world peace based
upon a trust in European solidarity, the result of wishful thinking, again
cause men to forget the counsel of the word of God, "They shall not
cleave one to another"?

Alliances may come, and it may appear that the iron and miry clay of
the feet and toes of the great image have finally fused, but God said, "They
shall not cleave one to another." It may seem that old animosities
have disappeared and that the "ten kings" have gone the way of
all the earth, but "the Scripture cannot be broken." John 10:
35.

We conclude with a word by William Newton: "And yet if, as the
result of these alliances, or of other causes, that number is sometimes
disturbed, it need not surprise us. The iron was 'mixed with clay.' For a
season, in the image, you might not distinguish between them. But they
would not remain so. 'They shall not cleave one to another.' The
nature of the substances forbids them to do so in the one case; the word of
prophecy in the other. Yet there was to be the attempt to mingle--nay,
more, there was an approach at mingling in both cases. But it was to be
abortive. And how marked the emphasis with which history affirms this
declaration of the word of God!" [11]

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Verse44 And in the days of these kings shall
the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the
kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and
consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. 45
Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without
hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the
silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall
come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation
thereof sure.

The God of Heaven to Set Up a Kingdom.--We here reach the
climax of this stupendous prophecy. When Time in his onward flight shall
bring us to the sublime scene here predicted, we shall have reached the end
of human history. The kingdom of God! Grand provision for a new and
glorious dispensation, in which His people shall find a happy terminus of
this world's sad, degenerate, and changing career. Transporting change for
all the righteous, from gloom to glory, from strife to peace, from a sinful
to a holy world, from death to life, from tyranny and oppression to the
happy freedom and blessed privileges of a heavenly kingdom! Glorious
transition, from weakness to strength, from the changing and decaying to
the immutable and eternal!

But when is this kingdom to be established? May we hope for an answer
to an inquiry of such momentous concern to our race? These are the very
questions on which the word of God does not leave us in ignorance, and
herein is seen the surpassing value of this heavenly boon.

The Bible plainly declares that the kingdom of God was still future at
the time of our Lord's last Passover. (Matthew 26: 29.) Christ did not
set up the kingdom before His ascension. (Acts 1: 6.) It states further
that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of god. (1 Corinthians 15:
50.) It is a matter of promise to the apostles, and to all those who love
God. (James 2: 5.) It is promised in the future to the little flock.
(Luke 12: 32.) Through much tribulation the saints are to enter the coming
kingdom. (Acts 14: 22.) It is to be set up when Christ shall judge the
living and the dead. (2 Timothy 4: 1.) This is to be when He shall come in

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His glory with all His holy angels. (Matthew 25: 31-34.).)

We do not say that the exact time is revealed (we emphasize the fact
that it is not) in this prophecy of Daniel 2 or in any other prophecy; but
so near an approximation is given that the generation which is to see the
establishment of this kingdom may mark its approach unerringly, and make
that preparation which will entitle the children of God to share in all its
glories.

Time has fully developed this great image in all its parts. Most
accurately does it represent the important political events it was designed
to symbolize. It has stood complete for more than fourteen centuries. It
waits to be smitten upon the feet by the stone cut out of the mountain
without hands, that is, the kingdom of Christ. This is to be accomplished
when the Lord shall be revealed in flaming fire, "taking vengeance on
them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ." 2 Thessalonians 1: 8. (See also Psalm 2: 8, 9.) In the
days of these kings the God of heaven is to set up a kingdom. We have been
in the days of these kings for many centuries, and we are still in their
days. So far as this prophecy is concerned, the very next event is the
setting up of God's everlasting kingdom. Other prophecies and innumerable
signs show unmistakably that the coming of Christ is near at hand.

The early Christian church interpreted the prophecies of Daniel 2, 7,
and 8 as we do now. Hippolytus, who lived A.D. 160-236, and is
thought to have been a disciple of Irenaeus, one of the four greatest
theologians of his age, says in his exposition of Daniel 2 and Daniel 7:

"The golden head of the image and lioness denoted the Babylonians;
the shoulders and arms of silver, and the bear, represented the Persians
and Medes; the belly and thighs of brass, and the leopard, meant the
Greeks, who held the sovereignty from Alexander's time; the legs of iron,
and the beast dreadful and terrible, expressed the Romans, who hold the
sovereignty at present; the toes of the feet which were part clay and part
iron, and the ten horns, were emblems of the

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kingdoms that are yet to rise; the other little horn that grows up
among them meant the Antichrist in their midst; the stone that smites the
earth and brings judgment upon the world was Christ." [12]

"Speak with me, O blessed Daniel. Give me full assurance, I
beseech thee. Thou dost prophesy concerning the lioness in Babylon; for
thou wast a captive there. Thou hast unfolded the future regarding the
bear; for thou wast still in the world, and didst see the things come to
pass. Then thou speakest to me of the leopard; and whence canst thou know
this, for thou art already gone to thy rest? Who instructed thee to
announce these things, but He who formed thee in (from ) thy mother's womb?
That is God, thou sayest. Thou hast spoken indeed, and that not falsely.
The leopard has arisen; the he-goat is come; he hath broken his horns in
pieces; he hath stamped upon him with his feet. He has been exalted by his
fall; (the) four horns have come up from under that one. Rejoice, blessed
Daniel! thou hast not been in error: all these things have come to pass.

"After this again thou hast told me of the beast dreadful and
terrible. 'It had iron teeth and claws of brass: it devoured and brake in
pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it.' Already the iron
rules; already it subdues and breaks all in pieces; already it brings all
the unwilling into subjection; already we see these things ourselves. Now
we glorify God, being instructed by thee." [13]

The part of the prophecy that had been fulfilled at that time was clear
to the early Christians. They saw also that there would develop ten
kingdoms out of the Roman Empire, and that the Antichrist would appear
among them. They looked forward with hope to the grand consummation, when
the second coming of Christ would bring an end to all earthly kingdoms, and
the kingdom of righteousness would be set up.

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The coming kingdom! This ought to be the all-absorbing topic with the
present generation. Reader, are you ready for the issue? He who enters
this kingdom shall dwell in it not merely for such a lifetime as men live
in this present state. He shall not see it degenerate, or be overthrown by
a succeeding and more powerful kingdom. No, he enters it to participate in
all its privileges and blessings, and to share its glories forever, for
this kingdom is not to "be left to other people."

Again we ask you, Are you ready? The terms of heirship are most
liberal: "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs
according to the promise." Galatians 3: 29. Are you on terms of
friendship with Christ, the coming King? Do you love His character? Are
you trying to walk humbly in His footsteps, and obey His teachings? If not,
read your fate in the cases of those in the parable, of whom it was said, "But
those Mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring
hither, and slay them before Me." Luke 19: 27. There is to be no
rival kingdom where you can find an asylum if you remain an enemy to this,
for God's kingdom is to occupy all the territory ever possessed by any and
all of the kingdoms of this world, past or present. It is to fill the whole
earth. Happy they to whom the rightful Sovereign, the all-conquering King,
at last can say, "Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Matthew 25: 34.

Verse46 Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon
his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an
oblation and sweet odors unto him. 47 The king answered unto
Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a
Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this
secret.
48 Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great
gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of
the governors over all the wise men of Babylon. 49 Then Daniel
requested of the king, and he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, over the
affairs of the province of Babylon: but Daniel sat in the gate of the king.

We must return to the palace of Nebuchadnezzar, and to Daniel, as he
stands in the presence of the king. He has made

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known to the monarch the dream and its interpretation, while the
courtiers and the baffled soothsayers and astrologers waited in silent awe
and wonder.

Nebuchadnezzar Exalts Daniel.--In fulfillment of his promise of
rewards the king made Daniel a great man. There are two things which in
this life are specially supposed to make a man great, and both these Daniel
received from the king: A man is considered great if he is a man of
wealth; and we read that the king gave him many and great gifts. If in
conjunction with riches a man has power, certainly in popular estimation he
is considered a great man; and power was bestowed upon Daniel in abundant
measure. He was made ruler over the province of Babylon, and chief of the
governors over all the wise men of Babylon. Thus speedily and abundantly
did Daniel begin to be rewarded for his fidelity to his own conscience and
requirements of God.

Daniel did not become bewildered or intoxicated by his signal victory
and his wonderful advancement. He first remembered the three who were
companions with him in anxiety respecting the king's matter. As they had
helped him with their prayers, he determined that they should share his
honors. At his request they were placed over the affairs of Babylon, while
Daniel himself sat in the gate of the king. The gate was the place where
councils were held and where matters of chief moment were considered. The
record is a simple declaration that Daniel became chief counselor to the
king.

[5] See Herodotus, pp. 67-71;
George Rawlinson,
The Seven Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World, Vol. II,
pp. 254-259; Humphrey Prideaux, The Old and New Testament Connected in
the History of the Jews, Vol. I, pp. 136, 137.

[6] Humphrey Prideaux, The
Old and New Testament Connected in the History of the Jews, Vol. I, p.
137.

[8] Edward Gibbon, The
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. III, general observations
following chap. 38, p. 634. There are many editions of Gibbon's work
beside the one used in the preparation of this book. For the student who
has a different edition, the chapter is included in all references to
facilitate the finding of the quotations.

[*] In harmony with seven
leading commentators, the author includes the Huns as one of the ten
kingdoms. Others, however, with historical precedent, name the Alamanni,
or Germans, instead of the Huns.--Editors.

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